Amid fears of Israeli counterattack, satellite imagery reveals the disappearance of Iranian oil tankers at the country's major terminal.

• An imminent attack by Israel is causing fear among the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), according to a tanker tracking firm.
• The terminal on Kharg Island, located 15 miles off Iran's northwestern coast, handles over 90% of the country's crude exports.
• On Thursday, oil prices experienced a 5% increase and are poised for an exceptional week, surpassing the previous year's best performance, due to remarks from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Amid fears of an Israeli counterattack on Tehran's energy infrastructure, satellite imagery showed a number of oil tankers leaving the waters around Iran's key Kharg Island oil loading terminal.

According to TankerTrackers.com, the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) is concerned about an imminent attack by Israel. As a result, they have evacuated their VLCC supertankers from the country's largest oil terminal, Kharg Island. This information was shared on the X social media platform on Thursday evening.

The possibility of an Israeli retaliation has caused markets to be on edge since Iran launched a missile attack against the Jewish state earlier this week.

The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captured satellite imagery on Sept. 25, revealing VLCC supertankers in the waters around Kharg Island, Iran's primary oil export terminal. These VLCC tankers are specifically designed to transport large volumes of crude oil.

On Oct. 3, two days after Iran launched a volley of around 180 missiles at Israel for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, imagery of the same location shows an empty sea around Kharg Island, with no ships in sight.

CNBC could not independently verify the footage.

Since the 2018 sanctions round, we have not seen anything like this before, as TankerTrackers.com reported in a separate X post. Crude oil loadings continue, but all of the extra vacant shipping capacity has been removed from the anchorage of Kharg Island.

TankerTrackers.com co-founder Samir Madani says that Iranian tankers frequently switch off their transponders and manipulate their automatic identification system (AIS) to conceal their movements and evade U.S. sanctions on the country's oil exports.

He informed CNBC that the Iranian tankers were currently located "in the middle of the Persian Gulf, west of the island" based on his analysis of satellite imagery.

Kharg Island: Iran's largest oil terminal

The Kharg Island terminal, situated fifteen miles off Iran's northwestern coast, is responsible for more than 90% of the country's crude exports. Despite this, its loading capacity has increased to 7 million barrels per day, according to Vesseltracker.com.

If an Israeli attack occurs on the terminal, oil prices could experience a sudden increase of up to 5%. Approximately 4% of the world's oil supply is at risk due to potential strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure, which is a significant contributor to OPEC's crude production.

On both the Iranian and Israeli sides, there are numerous facilities that could be targeted as critical infrastructure, according to Sara Vakhshouri, founder and president at SVB Energy, who spoke on CNBC's Capital Connection on Wednesday.

""The sheer size of Iran makes it impossible to secure all of its infrastructure," she emphasized."

Israel's government has promised a "severe response" to the Iranian offensive, leading to gains of around 8% in crude futures week-to-date.

On Thursday, oil prices increased by 5% and are expected to have a successful week due to comments made by U.S. President Joe Biden. When asked about the White House's stance on Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, Biden responded, "We're discussing that. I think that would be a little... anyway," cutting off mid-sentence.

On Friday at 9:30 a.m. in London, the December delivery contract of global benchmark Brent was trading at $78.49 per barrel, up 1.1% from the Thursday close. Meanwhile, the front-month November U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were trading at $74.49 per barrel, higher by 1% from the previous day's settlement.